Histoire des hommes volants in the Palacio Almudí Murcia

Lidó Rico in the Palacio Almudí and the Sala Cajamurcia Belluga to 30th March

Lidó Rico (Yecla, 1968) presents two interesting exhibitions in Murcia City Histoire des hommes volants, which is in the Palacio del Almudí to the 1st March and the intimate ‘Esculpir la idea’, in the Sala Cajamurcia Belluga showing the creative process behind his works, both venues within an easy five minute walk of each other.

Histoire des homes volants: Palacio AlmudíFrom 23rd January to 30th March
Monday to Saturday 12 midday to 2pm and 6pm to 9pm
Sundays 11am to 2pm

54 different pieces, made between 1994 and 2014, using a wide variety of media including collage, digital imaging, wax sculpture, glass, collage, mixed media on wood, aluminium, digital imaging and polyester resin, but with one theme in common; the use of the human form as not only an icon but also a medium.

Rico began his training in the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de París, graduating in Valencia, and has since exhibited all over the world ( America, Canada, Japan, Peru, Columbia, Mexico) as well as throughout Europe for more than 20 years, and is considered to be one of the most relevant Spanish sculptors of his era.
Although he uses a comprehensive blend of media, his most potent tool is his own body, which he uses to create casts and moulds, twisting, contorting, screaming, mourning, sleeping, dreaming, an icon of the torment suffered by every one of us in own private worlds, the temptation of the modern world and of modern man in his everyday life.

Rico said his work is an introspective of the spirit of modern man, a look inside the demons which drive us: love, hate, envy, desire, jealousy, anger, aggression, determination, violence, tenderness, materialism, caring, rejection, acceptance, striving, peace, breathing, relaxing, unwinding, this is his judgement day, his attempt to balance and reconcile the human spirit in a tangible, touchable form, the faces we see being everybody, but nobody.

Rico reaches out to us from the wall, his pieces fused into the fabric of the building as they stretch from the plasterwork to snatch space or hold fragments of glass, reflecting our own reactions back into the pieces.

He draws us in, following the movement of gesturing hands, twisting to exclaim at the expressions of anguish as hands and faces contort in a “modern day stargate” an echo of Rodín’s great gates of hell, complete with menacing balaclavas and the material precious metals we prize above loyalty and humanity, stamps flying away in the wind, memories of a naïve and innocent childhood kept by his mother, a calm yet questioning womb of white serenity, humanity gasping for air as we strangle ourselves with our own relentless desire for more.
Well worth a visit.

‘Esculpir la idea’
Sala de Exposiciones Cajamurcia Belluga, Plaza Belluga, next to the Cathedral
From 21st January to 21st March
Tuesday to Friday 12 midday to 2pm and 6pm to 8pm
Saturdays from 10am to 2pm

This is the perfect complement to Histoire des homes volants, showing the creative process behind the representative piece chosen, Génesis.

Images show how the artist uses his own body as a model, his own interaction with the concept that the chronology of art all springs from the inner essence of the artist.

The piece marks out the path of human destiny as a human form sprouts from a star, indicated as a human hand, showing the newborn spirit the path of its own life.

Again, it’s well worth visiting the two together if only to appreciate the extraordinary processes undertaken by this artist to create his works.

Recommended extra:
Go to the Sala Verónicas which is just a few metres from the Palacio Almudí behind the section of Moorish wall alongside the Verónicas market. This contains an exhibition by Daniel Canoger entitled Incontable which is really interesting. This is in the sala until 19th April.
Enjoy!